Friday, January 2, 2009

Raiders Of Lost Art...

The Marketing and Art Departments of the Mouse have created a great deal of art design from posters, title cards, promotions and such for the films, parks and various products that Disney tries to get the public to contribute much coinage.

Sometimes this art seeps through the cracks and others it just gets forgotten. I thought we'd take the opportunity to look as several pieces that may not be the most known works, but are visually striking, compelling and do the job that's intended of getting noticed...

I've did several post on posters before, but on this one I wanted to focus on posters that are rare and unique.

Some designs are simplistic, with little or no need for text...

Others are icon posters with striking designs, even if the movies aren't...

Then there are the ones that reflect the spirit of the times like this reissue poster...

Or amazing banners for films that show the sheer power of an image...

Some images are just sweet and simple...

And yet some modern posters tend to employ a retro look that reflects design we've seen before and yet never...

Perhaps a striking, yet simple billboards are another example...

And some shorts as well...

But films and shorts are not the only place where these rare designs can be found. When Walt Disney designed attractions for the New York World's Fair, they needed to be advertised,..

Or this poster for the inaugural voyage of the Disney Cruise Line's Magic...

And the parks are not left out either...

Some from attractions the Mouse wouldn't like to be reminded of...

And others from attractions that reflected Walt's own patriotism...

Or simple love of America...

Or artwork from Euro Disneyland's take on classic Disney attractions...

And lastly, a look at a poster for an attraction that all Disney Fans/Geeks miss...

11 comments:

You know that Swan Boats poster was done by a fan right? It was never used. It was done by Greg Maletic just for fun, and years later he ended up doing the bulk of HKDL's posters. Here's Greg's online portfolio: http://gregmaleticwork.wordpress.com/

Much of the artwork I chose hasn't been seen by many fans when it was in publication, wasn't published or it hasn't been available for a long time.

I've known of Maletic's HKDL work, but probably my favorite poster is the one he did for Tarzan's Tree House that's in the old style of the Swiss Family Robinson poster.

Many of the retro poster, particularly those of Pixar, were done by Eric Tan whom is another extremely talented Disney artist. He's also did some great Indy artwork that's available through Lucasfilm as well.

Also, the really cool "Black Hole" poster was, I believe, done by movie poster icon, Bob Peaks, who is mostly famous for his Apocalypse Now poster...

Beautiful pictures! But the Eurodisney Swiss Family Robinson only served to remind me how much I miss the beautiful house in the tree and how much I hate the Tarzan version. Which is sad because I adore the movie. Oh well, perhaps that is a movie worth remaking - just so they can bring the tree back.